Critical Linking: December 16 -21, 2012

Here are the most-read stories from the last week in Critical Linking….

I put the Big 6 up first, and it’s clear they take up much of the list space, but there are plenty of mid- to small- publishers represented, too. Here’s an actual breakdown of the Big 6 against every other publisher on the lists:

Steve Bercu, an owner of BookPeople in Austin, Tex., said sales were up 10 percent over last year. He said that shoppers were buying coffee-table books but were also snapping up Kobo devices. “I was a naysayer,” he said, “but they are buying the actual devices, which surprised me.”

Bartley now models Amazon selling just 6 million units this quarter of the Fire, down from 8 million previously, and 10.5 million for all of 2013, down from 12.5 million previously.

This is just an analyst’s guess, but it does align with my own personal observations: I am seeingrelatively fewer Kindles and relatively more iPad/iPad minis and Nooks. To my mind, a little balance in the ereader/tablet sector is good for readers, for a variety of reasons.

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“The romance category remains one of the most enduring, and has always been at the heart of some of the bestselling series, including the Hunger Games and Twilight,” Feiwel says. “You can clothe it in many different outfits, but romance is at the core.”